Utilitarian Philosophers

Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham (1740-1832) was an English
philosopher and a political thinker. He is primarily
known for his moral philosophy especially his principle
of utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism evaluates actions based upon their
consequences.
Happiness according to Bentham, is thus a matter of
experiencing pleasure and lack of pain.
Utilitarianism is normative ethics. As such, action is
right as long as it generates happiness and wrong if it
produces reverse of happiness…..not just happiness.
Jeremy Bentham…..Contd.
To Bentham, pleasures are all qualitative, however, they can be
graded on the basis of intensity, length, certainty, temporal
closeness, fruitfulness and purity.
Utilitarian philosophy when directed to making social, economic
or political decisions, aims for the betterment of society.
Utilitarianism deals with morality of actions. The greatest
happiness principle is one that maximizes utility or happiness for
greatest number of people.
Principle of antipathy or sympathy is not sufficient to decide
morality of action.
Morality of is not an essential attribute of law. Law needs
revision.
Jeremy Bentham…..Contd.
Bentham rejected the notion of reason to decide he morality of
action.
His theory of ‘utilitarianism’ is also called as the ‘doctrine of
‘hedonism’. Hedonistic method calculates the moral rightness and
wrongness of an action. It is known as hedonistic calculus.
In his theory of utilitarianism, more emphasis is given to
individualism though it aims at reforming the society as duty of the
legislation.
It is an effort to blend materialism with idealism.
It could not create a balance between individual interests and the
interests of the community.
Utilitarianism was founder by Bentham and further developed by
his disciple J. S. Mill.
John Stuart Mill
J.S. Mill (1806-1873) was a British philosopher, political
economist and a civil servant.
As per his most articulate text ‘Utilitarianism’ (1861, he tried to
justify the utilitarian principle as the foundation of morals. This
principle says that actions are right in proportion as they tend to
promote overall human happiness.
Mill defines happiness as pleasure and absence of pain.
The word ‘utility’ means general wellbeing, usefulness or
happiness.
Mill views utility as the consequence of a good action.
Mill says that good actions lead to pleasure and define pleasure
J. S. Mill…..Contd.
Mill’s other works include ‘Considerations on Representative
Democracy’ in which Mill presented his most sustained defense of
representative democracy.
He opposed legal subordination of one sex to other which is
wrong in itself in his text ‘Subjection of Women’.
Men too, directly benefit from sexual equality. When both sexes
are free, marriage will cease to be a bondage. It will become a
form of friendship between two equals.